Masters & workshops 2014

1. Mark Steinmetz - Collaborating with the so-called Real World

The great American photographer Walker Evans gave a lecture at Yale University in 1964 entitled Lyric Documentary. The word “lyric” suggests subjective and personal emotions, and “documentary” suggests the objective recording of facts. During the workshop, the students will focus on making work that describes the world but which also describes something of the photographer’s psyche and temperament. We will review work from past projects that students have brought with them and also edit and discuss photographs taken during the workshop. In addition, Mark will talk about his own work and influences. We will look at the American tradition and the French tradition, as well as contemporary photography from around the world.

The aim is to help the students connect more deeply to their own practice and to consider their work within a more expanded context.

Requirements: The participants will be expected to choose their own subject and define their own interests during the workshop. Please bring your portfolios for class review and critique – either in digital form, or, if possible, in prints.

Mark Steinmetz is a photographer residing in Athens, Georgia (USA). He has six books published by the Nazraeli Press (Portland, OR): South Central, South East, Greater Atlanta, Summertime, Italia, and Paris in my time. Another book with Nazraeli on little league baseball, The Players, is due late 2014. Philip and Micheline, a book about his parents, was published by tbw books (Oakland, CA) in 2011 and in the same year two limited edition books were published by Silas Finch (New York), idyll (with Raymond Meeks) and pastoral. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and others. Steinmetz is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship and has exhibited widely in the United States and Europe. He has taught photography at Harvard University, Yale University, Sarah Lawrence College, Emory University and The University of Hartford.

2. Yurie Nagashima - Photography as a Subversive Tactic

When a society categorizes certain people under a common label, there is always a political undercurrent. By defining a group’s characteristics as different from what is considered ‘normal’ or ‘standard’, they can be made into the ‘Other’, marginalized or isolated. For example, in a traditional gender-based power relationship a woman is often treated and expected to behave as a Model (object) in relationship to the Photographer (subject).

It is important for all photographers to learn how to identify themselves with the ‘Other’ and to approach the norms imposed by society critically. Sometimes, the most effective way of making a statement is to use subjects from the photographer’s everyday life, including his/her own body.

In this workshop, we will search for ways to subvert and challenge the norms of participants’ social background through their photographic practice, taking inspiration from the tactics of the Japanese “Girly Photo” movement that appeared in the 90s with authors like Hiromix, Mika Ninagawa, Rinko Kawauchi. Specifically, we will execute a sequence of works that will include self-portraits, a technique commonly used to subvert power relationships in society through photography. Participants will choose to address either gender-related or other forms of socially imposed norms.

Yurie Nagashima (born 1973) is a Japanese photographer and contemporary artist working predominantly in the genres of self-portraiture, portraiture, street photography and still life. Yurie Nagashima rose to national fame in Japan after receiving the Second prize of the annual Urbanart award in 1993. In 2001, Nagashima was awarded the prestigious Kimura Ihei Award. In addition to her work as a photographer and part-time lecturer at Musashino Art University in Tokyo, Nagashima has published seven books that deal with the family, gender, identity and sexuality. Nagashima has received an MFA in photography from the California Institute of the Arts and is represented by the gallery SCAI the Bathhouse in Tokyo, where she has had numerous solo and group exhibitions.

3. Antonin Kratochvil - Portraits - on the Edge of the Light

This workshop invites photographers to experience a unique way of exploring people through portraiture—to look at the psychology of the portrait, stripping away the accessories and distractions and unveiling the raw information within. Antonin will teach how, in the difficult art of portraiture, it is possible to show one’s personal style of interpretation. There will be daily assignments, discussions and reviews of work in progress to help participants develop their ability to encourage and capture emotional content and create a memorable portrait series. Throughout the workshop, Antonin will provide critique and help edit the work of the students, drawing from his combined photographic experience of forty-four years.

Antonin Kratochvil is a founding member of the VII photo agency. He has covered all sorts of major events, rebellions and natural disasters around the world in the last few decades. He is the author of five books: Broken Dream: 20 Years of War in Eastern Europe (1997), Incognito (2001), Supravvivere (2001), Antonin Kratochvil (2003) and Vanishing (2005), and a laureate of some of the top international awards, notably for his portraits – including the Infinity Award in 1991, two World Press Photo prizes in 2003 and the Lucie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Photojournalism in 2005. Antonin has been teaching numerous photography workshops worldwide.

"Beneath his foul language and outrageous antics, the Czech photographer is the greatest living observer of human suffering and spirit. Kratochvil spent his early childhood in a Czech labour camp and grew up in Communism's grip. After he fled Czechoslovakia, at the age of 19, he wandered Europe illegally for years, in search of refugee status, was conscripted by the French Foreign Legion, and later deserted the brutal army. He drifted to Amsterdam and then Hollywood and built a career as a photojournalist, doing what came naturally: searching out the places where conflict and suffering were rife." - Eliza Griswold.

4. Simon Norfolk - Photographing the Past

One of photography’s most interesting challenges is uncovering the often painful histories that surround us – their hiddenness, unsayability and the wreckage the past leaves behind. In this workshop, the students will each develop a story concerning local histories in the village of Pelči, Kuldīga, Latvia or the broader region of Eastern Europe. While important periods in the region’s history include the Holocaust and the Soviet occupation, proposals on any events or historical periods are welcome, no matter how far back in time.

Good photography begins with good research. Before and during the workshop, the participants will work on finding, uncovering and displaying the historical events or processes they wish to reveal or comment upon. Between being selected for the workshop (early June) and arriving in Kuldīga, you are expected to spend time researching your interests and preparing for the 'field work' on the site. During the workshop, the focus will be on creating the visualisable part of the project, not looking for more information - the participants will create a series of photographs based on their prior investigation, as a culmination of two months of work. Simon will be offering guidance in the process as well as presenting his own work, explaining his interests and why he makes photographs the way he does.

Requirements: Students are expected to work independently before the ISSP, beginning the research/background part of their projects from early June, including consulting with Simon about the chosen direction and research sources via Skype or email.

Please bring collected research material and a fairly developed idea of the field work to be done during the ISSP, as well as a 5-minute presentation on yourself, your background and interests for an introduction.
Importantly, bring audacity and a sense of humor.

from Photographs from the war in Afganistan by Burke and Norfolk (2011)

Simon Norfolk (born 1963 in Lagos, Nigeria) is a landscape photographer whose work over a dozen years has been themed around a probing and stretching of the meaning of the word 'battlefield' in all its forms. He has photographed in some of the world's worst war-zones and refugee crises, but is equally at home photographing supercomputers used to design military systems or test-launches of nuclear missiles.

Described by one critic as “the leading documentary photographer of our time”, Norfolk’s work has been widely recognized internationally. In 2003 he was shortlisted for the Citibank (Deutsche Böurse) Prize and in 2012 won the Prix Pictet Commission. He has produced four monographs including 'Afghanistan: chronotopia' (2002); 'For Most Of It I Have No Words' (1998) about the landscapes of genocide; and 'Bleed' (2005) about the war in Bosnia. The most recent is 'Burke+Norfolk; Photographs from the War in Afghanistan' (2011) that came with a solo show at Tate Modern. Simon Norfolk lives and works in Hove and Kabul.

5. Adrian Kelterborn - Multimedia Storytelling

This workshop offers the opportunity to explore important aspects of multimedia storytelling, especially focusing on ways of combining still images with sound, video and other elements to create linear, cinematic stories.

The basis of the workshop will be the students’ individual stories, containing photography stills, videos and audio elements, as well as text. Although some visual and audio elements can be collected during the workshop, the students will mainly work with existing bodies of work, translating those into cinematic multimedia narratives.

The workshop welcomes both photojournalists and fine art photographers. We will combine theoretical and practical input, critique, and developing an individual multimedia strategy and language fit for the specific project. Our goal is to frame the multimedia potential of each particular body of work, and to work towards creating a linear multimedia piece that will highlight the message the author wants to convey.

Requirements: The students should come with an existing body of work that they wish to transform into a cinematic multimedia piece - ideally, containing a combination of still images and some video and audio recordings. A laptop with installed editing software is a pre-requisite. A sound recorder might be useful.

Adrian Kelterborn (1979) is a multimedia and film producer, director and editor. Born and raised in Basel, Switzerland, he studied film directing and editing at the University of Art and Design Zurich, graduating in 2005. In 2006 he produced and directed two independent documentaries “Acheb in Albania” and “Neue Weltgeschichten: Sammlung Herzog”. In 2007 he joined the Magnum in Motion (MIM) team, the inhouse-multimedia department of Magnum Photos, based in New York City. From 2009-2012, Adrian Kelterborn was lead producer at MIM, responsible for all MIM production. During his time at Magnum in Motion, he produced more than 100 multimedia essays, in close collaboration with Magnum photographers and for international editorial, NGO, and commercial clients such as The New Yorker, The Global Fund, and LEICA amongst many others. Since 2012, he has been living between Basel and Berlin focusing on initiating media hybrid projects both for online and offline platforms.

For some time now, we have been suffering from an overproduction of images. Recently, this is also the case with photographic books. The fact that making a book has become easier and more available is not in itself a sufficient reason to publish a book. An artist must be able to honestly answer the question 'WHY?'.

During the workshop, Ania and Rafał will share their experience in conceptual work with photobooks and photobook production, combining the points of view of photographer and graphic designer. Together with the participants, they will go through the main stages of book production, from the concept to completion: research, photo editing, sequence, work with text, graphic design, pre-press process, print, binding and promotion. The workshop will involve a series of lectures, practical classes and work on the students’ own book projects, and will result in the production of a dummy book by each of the participants.

Requirements: The workshop is meant for photographers who have completed or are close to completing their project, and are planning a publication. In addition to the images, the participants are encouraged to bring any materials that can be potentially incorporated into their publication, such as texts, graphic elements, etc. A laptop with Indesign and Photoshop is a must, as well as small prints (we recommend a minimum of 30) for editing.

books by Sputnik collective

Ania Nałęcka is a graphic designer, art director and book designer at Tapir Book Design, collaborating with Sputnik Photos collective (www.sputnikphotos.com). She has designed the following books, among others: 7 Rooms, Black Sea of Concrete, In the Car with R (Rafał Milach), IS(not), At the Border, Stand BY, Distant Place (Sputnik Photos), Brutal (Michał Łuczak), American Dream (Agnieszka Rayss), The Love Book (Sławomir Rumiak), Karczeby (Adam Pańczuk), Swell (Mateusz Sarełło), Promising Waters ( Mila Teshaieva) and The Irreversible (Agnieszka and Maciek Nabrdalik). Books designed by Nałęcka have been awarded 69 & 71 POYi The Best Photography Book Award (first prize 2011 and first prize 2013), ParisPhoto/Aperture Foundation Photobook Award (2012 and 2013), The New York Photofestival (first prize, 2011), Photography Book Now (2009 grand prize and 2011 first prize), Art Books Wanted International Award (2013) and Publication of the Year, Fotofestiwal in Łódź (first prizes in both categories, 2013). She has also co-curated Sputnik Photos’ exhibitions Stand By and Distant Place, Photo-eye for Best Books of 2012 (best books by Sputnik Photos) as well as the Curated Bookshelf with Foam Museum in Amsterdam.

Rafal Milach is a photographer and book artist based in Warsaw, Poland. For more than 10 years he has been working on transition issues in Russian speaking countries and the CEE region. This work resulted in the monographs 7 Rooms (Kehrer 2011) and Black Sea of Concrete (self-published 2013). In 2012 he published the book In the Car with R, the record his travel with writer Huldar Breidfjord around Iceland. In 2007 Rafal took part in the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass. His work has been awarded World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year International, Magnum Expression Awards, Photography Book Now and New York Photo Festival and exhibited in C/O Berlin, Zacheta National Gallery of Art and MoCA Shanghai. He currently lectures at the Institute for Creative Photography in Opava, Czech Republic.

In 2006 together with 10 other Central Eastern European photographers, Rafal created the photo collective Sputnik Photos, to document, promote and spread knowledge on transition issues in CEE countries. Rafal has also curated book projects such as Private property (2012), Rough cut (2011), 25/25 and Don’t mess with Texas (2011) within Photomonth in Krakow.

Nico Baumgarten is a freelance photographer and bookmaker trying to find a way out of the limitations of the editorial and art market by creating books. He has studied photography at the IDEP in Barcelona and bookbinding at the CFP Bauer in Milan. He has self-published three books, all handmade in limited editions: Berlusconians / No Berlusconians (2011), Leer (2013) and ma almeno ci sei tu amore mio (2013). Nico has taught photography and bookmaking workshops in Berlin, Riga, Caracas, Rio de Janeiro and Amsterdam.

7. My Story - a workshop for Pelči youth

Participants of this workshop, young people from the village of Pelči, Kuldīga district, will learn to tell stories and express themselves through photography. They will learn the basics of photographic language, at the same time reflecting on their life, people, issues and things that matter to them, their dreams and future plans. During the week each participant will create a personal photographic story. The results of the workshop will be included in the ISSP exhibition at Kuldīga Art Space.

The workshop is designed for 10 - 14 participants. Participation is free of charge.